Just a wild, unqualified suggestion: If the pain is mid back, could it be an issue with a lung. I have known others who suffered a “bruised lung”, but they had been in fights. Possible lung infection ?
I did something to my back about six month ago and was in really excruciating pain. It took a full three months to gradually get better. I had gone to “Dr. Google” and found out that a lot of back pain does finally resolve on its own with “tincture of time”. For those several months I would never have believed it would get better without some drastic intervention though.
Uhg, all sortsof lung things can trigger other pains.
@BunsenBurner is it true that images (eg, MRI) can’t id muscle tears?
Doctors do not know everything, can’t possibly know everything. Back pain can have many causes. It almost sounds as though you think if a medical professional doesn’t have the answer, he is negligent or not doing his job. Not every medical problem is easily diagnosed. There will always be mysteries. Even the smartest, most qualified doctors will be stumped now and then. There is no 100% in medicine.
My Dad had excruciating mid one sided back pain shortly after backing into a clock that protruded outward into a room. It turned out to be lymphoma tumors, but of course after describing his injury to doctors, they were not thinking about lymphoma. The injury just turned out to be a complete coincidence, but it really muddied the water for awhile. Has your DH had blood work done? How about a CT scan?
It could well be that he has an injury from playing soccer that just will need time and rest to heal. It’s not necessarily going to glow in the dark (so to speak) and make itself obvious.
The obvious thing I would do is take a couple of weeks off, and take high dose ibuprofen, perhaps even an oral steroidal. Back/sciatica stretching. Does sleeping become better?
I was in a bad car accident a year ago. Shortly thereafter I started getting weird pains going down my left leg and into my foot. It came and went so I didn’t think much of it, but it started getting worse this summer so I went to the dr. I thought I had a bad hammy or something.
They sent me to 2 months of PT. Finished that up but by this point I’m in agony. I can’t walk, sit, or stand. I’ve had as much steroids as they would allow, all kinds of pain meds and still no idea what’s going on. MRI of hamstring looks fine so they sent me to the Sports Med guy. He literally hears me sobbing trying to walk to the exam room and meets me in the room. He lets me get as comfy as possible and says there’s no way this is my leg. He send me for another MRI & woo nelly! I’ve got a ruptured disc at the base of my spine like you wouldn’t believe!! It’s actually going down my spinal canal and has surrounded the nerve root.
I’ve had an epidural shot to no avail. I’m seeing a neuro-spinal surgeon on friday. Pretty sure he’s going to tell me I need surgery.
All this is the long version to say (1) I so sympathize w/ back pain!! It’s debillitating and can wreck havoc on your self esteem. and (2) don’t give up. Keep asking questions. Make sure you’re seeing the right docs. Just b/c it present as one thing, doesn’t mean it isn’t something entirely different.
He could try some Pilates, frankly back pain has almost become the area of witchery pokery medically. Lots of back pain is fixed by time and exercise, doctors just don’t get a pass for saying that. When I get twingy back issues it is because I have become sloppy about any core exercise. I assume an MRI would have excluded any dire diagnosis? Is he in good health? no cardiac issues? Gastric issues? How old? What exercise does he do?
I’m going to pm the OP, because our experience is very identifying — but suffice it to say that your body is capable of very odd things with good resolution.
A lot of back pain is nonspecific – meaning that doctors can’t identify a specific cause for it. Evolution led to us standing and sitting upright even though our backs weren’t “designed” for it. It’s not a perfect system, and it gets fouled up a lot.
Fortunately, most back pain goes away within a few weeks. But in the meantime, can he rearrange his life to avoid sitting?
I’ve had back and neck issues for decades. I can definitely testify to the fact that sitting can be very painful for people suffering from low back pain.
Ha, you sound almost exactly like me. 
I have to say, carrying around excess weight and not having a strong core, can/could contribute to back pain/issues among many other potential problems. The OP’s husband plays soccer and runs, which can be extremely tough on the back and joints.
All I can say is that I vigorously exercise 6x/week and consider my core extremely strong, but back in late August, taking a day off from exercise in order to pack for vacation, I somehow someway tweaked my back and the pain lasted for several days. However, I continued to deadlift and squat (with lower weight), among other exercises, as I read that you should continue to “lift yourself” out of the pain. Again, with much lower weight. About a week later, I was back to “normal.” :lol:
An anecdote of 1.
If this were me, I would see a neurologist.
From my own experience, and that of people I know, I have come to believe that a lot of back issues are really related to a lack of core strength and flexibility. Most people of a certain age (mine!) focus on weights and cardio, but neglect the abs (or do crunches or sit-ups, which are horrible) and don’t do anything for the lower back and hips.
After he heals from this, he might want to start practicing yoga (I do this with online videos) and planks.
Count me in the camp that things that 6 weeks isn’t enough time…aren’t most PT programs a minimum of 6 weeks? Did he try that first?
As for some of the scarier things mentioned here, I think the fact that it is only sitting that causes the pain rules some of those out.
I’ve seen many, many chiropractors over a lifetime of migraines, and I can say that they vary widely in results. If you didn’t ask around and find a highly recommended/reviewed one, that may be worth another try.
I have a suggestion. It’s very inexpensive and non-invasive, doesn’t involve drugs, acupuncture, surgery, physical therapists or chiropractors.
Read a book: “Mind Over Back Pain: A Radically New Approach to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Back Pain”, by Dr John Sarno. (Book was originally written in 1984 so it’s not really “a radically new approach”)
Worst case, you read the book and get a different perspective on the epidemic of back pain and the myriad of ineffective treatments available, and an answer to your question,
That’s the worst case.
Best case, it could cure your husband and change his life for the better. It really worked a miracle for me, but I have given up trying to explain Dr Sarno’s approach and find it easier to simply refer them to the book.
Dr Sarno died 2 years ago, but fortunately not before 100s of his patients wrote a book full of testimonials thanking him for curing their back pain. I have a page in there, as does my sister.
Consider seeing a physiatrist— it’s a little-known specialty of physical medicine. I describe it to people as an orthopedist who doesn’t operate. Too often, the mentality of orthopedists is, “Can I operate on you? No? Get out of my office!”
Not to say that physiatrists are better at diagnosis than other doctors, but it’s helpful that they have a non-surgical approach.
Kidney problems run in my family and from your description if the location of the pain that’s the first thing that jumped into my head. I assume with all those dr visits that someone did blood work to rule out anything along these lines but just in case they didn’t I wanted to mention this.
Not really amazing once you delve in to the medical literature.
One study that hilites the problems of diagnosing back pain was done a few years ago. The researchers sent a series of MRI scans and X-rays taken from patient files to a large number of back specialists. The researchers knew whether the patients were suffering pain, the specialists only saw the imaging. The specialists were asked to examine the scans, identify and quantify the severity of damage revealed by the scans and report their opinion of whether the patients were experiencing pain, and if so, how severe.
The result of the study was that there was absolutely no correlation between actual physical damage identified in the scans and patient reports of pain.
Patients with Xrays and MRIs that looked absolutely horrible had no pain, and patients whose scans were perfect could be in agony.
Back pain treatment is basically voodoo medicine.
Chiming in that six weeks does not seem like enough time. However, with a sports injury, I’d hope to see windows or glimmers of “this feels a little better” by then.
+1 for yoga work